Furniture Of `50s Finds A Place For Itself In `80s

No Longer Viewed As Just Fad Items

March 16, 1986|By Better Homes and Gardens.

Once rummage sales staples, those boomerang tables, starburst chandeliers, chairs nicknamed the Ant and the Egg, and a host of other 1950s- era furnishings are proving that style means staying power in today`s market, says Better Homes and Gardens Decorating magazine.

No longer considered just a fad, mid-century furnishings have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the past few years, a revival fueled not only by cachet and sometimes necessity, but also by the good design, sculptural beauty, and spare but sturdy construction of pieces long relegated to attics and basements.

Years short of the antique status that has boosted the price of Victoriana, Art Deco, and art nouveau pieces, many 1950-style furnishings, even those of noted designers, remain available, affordable and compatible with contemporary interiors.

For example, in New York, a five-piece setting of Russel Wright dinnerware can be found for about $25, and Venini handkerchief vases sell for $200 and up. At Fifty-50, a Manhattan shop that has one of the most extensive collections of designer pieces, Charles Eames` simple birch lounge chair in fine condition carries a $550 tag, up from $250 to $350 three or four years ago. But prices are still reasonable for what some designers believe are tomorrow`s valuable antiques.

``There must be thousands of attics, basements, and storerooms full of this merchandise,`` says Michael Cuttie, Chicago designer and vice president of Janet Schirn Interiors of Chicago and New York. Prices on `50s pieces have stabilized, he says, but it may be temporary. ``Popularity will probably blossom,`` he says. ``There`s still the stigma of bad design and having what your parents had.``

Some of the classic `50s pieces are, of course, out of production. So, depending on rarity and vintage, some items carry substantial prices. Sculptor Isamu Noguchi`s amoeba coffee table, created in 1944, is perhaps one of the era`s most famous pieces. Herman Miller Co. recently reissued a version of it with black or walnut legs for $995. The original, with birch legs and now out of production, fetched $3,000 at one Manhattan shop.

The toasts of postwar era furnishings are those by such noted designers as Eames, Noguchi, Eero Saarinen, and Arne Jackobsen. Freed at last from military responsibilities, furniture designers returned to their craft, often applying military technology to their new creations. Eames, for example, developed a bent-plywood chair that was inspired by a laminated leg splint he designed for the Department of the Navy during the war.

Peace brought a sense of starting anew, reflected in the spare, clean-looking, and sculptural designs. Plastics, plywood, tubular steel, and aluminum proved new technology compatible with good design. With war-torn Europe preoccupied with rebuilding, American designers basked in the spotlight.

``It was the first time that American design could be far and away the best,`` says Ralph Cutler, co-owner of Fifty-50.

The Miller company in Zeeland, Mich., had perhaps the greatest impact on postwar contemporary design and employed George Nelson, Noguchi, Eames, and Eames` wife, Ray.

Another important furniture company was Knoll International with noted architect-designer Saarinen, who offered his Tulip table and chair in 1956.

Danish designer Jacobsen was master of the biomorphic chair. To it, he added humor to produce the classic the Egg and the Ant, both of molded plastic.

In the early 1960s, the two leaders--Miller and Knoll--moved on to the more profitable arena of commercial design.

``So what had been a residential look became a corporate look,`` Cutler explains.

In ``Mid-Century Modern`` (Harmony Books), author Cara Greenberg says cheap imitations flourished because designers were not permitted to patent original designs. Poor reproductions of `50s furniture tarnished the appeal of the originals.

Dealers of `50s furniture advise that knowing how advancing technology changed, even slightly, the shape of pieces or materials used can help a consumer determine vintage.

Several companies have reissued or stepped up production of `50s favorites. Miller still produces Eames` designs, and Knoll makes Harry Bertoia`s Diamond chair and Saarinen`s Womb chair and Tulip pieces. Plycraft Inc. again offers its Rockwell chair, a molded plywood seat shown in a Norman Rockwell illustration in 1961, after an original chair netted $2,600. A new version of the chair sells for $300.